Bruins' collapse gives Blackhawks the Cup

Tuesday

Jun 25, 2013 at 6:00 AMJun 25, 2013 at 10:25 AM

The end came quicker than a guillotine. But the Bruins didn't even know the blade was hanging over their heads. Nursing a 2-1 lead with time running out, the Bruins were struck by a bolt from the blue on Monday night. The Blackhawks scored two goals in 17 seconds, the winner coming off the stick of Dave Bolland with 58.3 seconds left.

By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The end came quicker than a guillotine. But the Bruins didn't even know the blade was hanging over their heads.

Nursing a 2-1 lead with time running out, the Bruins were struck by a bolt from the blue on Monday night. The Blackhawks scored two goals in 17 seconds, the winner coming off the stick of Dave Bolland with 58.3 seconds left in regulation, and Chicago skated off with a stunning, 3-2 victory to clinch its second Stanley Cup since 2011 and end Boston's season in shocking fashion before a stunned TD Garden crowd.

The Bruins finished two wins short of the title after an impressive playoff run past Toronto, the Rangers and Pittsburgh. But it was hard for them to appreciate the good parts of their season after losing Game 6 in such a stunning way.

"We've got to be extremely proud of those guys," coach Claude Julien said. "It's going to take a little while before we realize the accomplishment that we had in making it to the finals again, but right now it doesn't feel good."

It appeared the Bruins were on their way to forcing a Game 7 on Wednesday night in Chicago after Milan Lucic put them ahead, 2-1, with 7:49 left in the third period. He banged home a pass from behind the net by David Krejci, which linemate Nathan Horton had knocked down with his stick in front before Lucic swept it past goalie Corey Crawford.

After that, Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask made big stops with 6:04 left on a Victor Stalberg rush, then a short shot from in close by Andrew Shaw. Boston even killed off a Chicago power play that began with 5:39 remaining.

But Crawford left the ice for an extra skater with 1:25 left, and Bryan Bickell tied it up nine seconds later when he converted Jonathan Toews' cross-ice pass with a one-timer from the right side to make it 2-2.

Then, 17 seconds later, Bolland -- with just two goals in the playoffs this year, one of them in Chicago's Game 1 victory over Boston -- put home the rebound of Johnny Oduya's point shot that was deflected and went off the post to the right of Rask with 58.3 seconds remaining.

"It's shocking," Rask said of the winning goal, "because you think you have things under control. We killed a big penalty there and we were thinking, you know, we've just got to keep it tight and then maybe score an empty-netter."

"It's a bad feeling," added defenseman Johnny Boychuk. "Bad, like an awful feeling. You can't really describe it. As a player, it's probably one of the worst feelings you can get when you are up by one goal with 1:20 left and somehow you lose the game. It's just like a total shock."

Asked what he felt after the loss, Rask replied: "Nothing."

"A tough way to finish the season, I guess," he added somberly.

Patrick Kane, who had nine goals and a team-leading 19 points in the playoffs, was named winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

The Bruins, gunning for their second Stanley Cup in three years, said they'd come out showing desperation and they did that, dominating the first period while taking a 1-0 lead on Chris Kelly's goal at 7:20. But it easily could have been at least 3-0.

Linemate Tyler Seguin, in the left circle, gloved a high pass and dropped it to the ice, where he immediately slid a pinpoint backhand pass across to Kelly on the other side. Kelly's one-timer from 15 feet on the right caught the open right side of the net before Crawford could slide over to cover, and it was 1-0.

The first period was dominated territoriality by the Bruins, who put almost constant pressure in the Chicago end even when they weren't getting shots on Crawford. They had a 12-6 edge in shots on goal, but actually had a 32-8 advantage when you add in shots blocked (13-1) and shots that missed the net (7-1).

"Obviously, when you look at the first period, it could have been 2, 3 to nothing," Julien said. "But that's the name of the game. You make your own breaks, and sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don't."

Though Chicago had only the six shots on Rask, a couple were testers. Michael Frolik had a short breakaway midway through the period, but he shot early and it went right into Rask's midsection. Bickell also had a decent chance from the slot right after Kelly's goal, but Rask turned that one aside.

Other than that, it was all Boston, which tried to -- and usually did -- hit anything that moved. Kelly nearly scored twice just over seven minutes into the game, once on a deflection of a Boychuk shot and another seconds later on a pass from Daniel Paille that Kelly first deflected on Crawford, then tried to stuff home.

During a power play, the first of two for Boston in the first period, Torey Krug's shot from the point was deflected in front by Lucic and stopped by Crawford. Nathan Horton had two whacks at the rebound that wouldn't go. Lucic also had a good bid from the slot that Crawford gobbled up.

The Bruins had four shots on that power play, and one on their second PP that bridged the first and second periods, but disaster struck on their third.

With Andrew Shaw off for roughing early in the second period, the Blackhawks scored a short-handed goal with a fraction of a second left on the Boston power play to tie it.

Toews battled Kelly to a draw on a faceoff in the neutral zone, but Toews chased down the loose puck himself and raced down the right side into the Boston zone with Kane on the left side. Toews' quick wrist shot from the circle beat Rask at 4:24 and suddenly the score was 1-1.

"We lost a lot of steam in the second period," Julien said. "Jags (Jaromir Jagr) left the bench and we had to shorten our bench. The pace of this game, and how hot it's been, took a toll on our players. We kind of regained a little bit of it in the third, especially when we scored that go-ahead goal."

The Bruins dodged a bullet during Chicago's first power play of the night in the second period. With Seguin off for hooking at 13:57, Sharp blasted a shot from the left point that was deflected in front by Bickell. Rask not only made that save, but when Zdeno Chara tried to clear the loose puck, he accidentally chipped it toward the net, and Rask had to make another save.

The Blackhawks had the best of the play in the second period, finishing with a 9-6 edge in shots that didn't reflect the true measure of their dominance, and the teams headed into the third period even for the game in most categories except hits, where the Bruins again had the edge, 33-20.

"It was a battle," Rask said. "Everybody left it all out there. We had some guys playing through injuries, but that's how playoffs go. You've got to battle through those (things). This year, we weren't fortunate enough to stay healthy and have a full squad, but still, that's no excuse."

Chicago outshot the Bruins, 31-25, including 16-7 in the third period, but the Bruins had more scoring chances. About five minutes into the third period, the Bruins had a 28-10 edge in scoring chances.

Bergeron returned to play Game 6 after leaving Game 5 early with an undisclosed injury. Chara was also hurting, Julien said later, and Jagr had his minutes limited in Game 6 after being injured. He played just under 6-1/2 minutes.